There are also seams that you can cut into to navigate an area, as Kutaro will be able to cut through these quickly as you tap square faster. Kutaro can also cut enemies with the Calibrus, and free the other boys’ souls, and it comes in very handy during the boss fights, which are particularly good. As you progress you will unlock new powers and abilities that must be used to defeat enemies, as the game drip feeds these new abilities throughout. There are a lot of similarities to LittleBigPlanet, particularly because there is a narration almost all the way through the game.

The level design is absolutely fantastic, and in terms of aesthetics it looks amazing. There is no real loading within each level, and when you get to the end of a section of a level, the camera might zoom in or out, and all the level objects will fall into place. Right from the beginning the whole of Puppeteer is presented like a puppet show, but the design is so good that you actually forget about that pretty quickly. The character designs are incredibly good, very Punch-and-Judy-esque, and the main bosses in particular are very detailed. Everything looks like it has been carved out of wood, or made from paper. The voice acting is a little over-the-top and cheesy, but that’s just like a real puppet show.

My only real gripe with Puppeteer is that the cutscenes are a little too long, although it is possible to skip them. The game is so fun that you simply want to continue playing, but it is cut up by scenes showing the Moon Bear King being angry, we get it, he’s angry, now on to the next level. Unfortunately, I can see why this is a necessity because it means the game can also target a younger audience who will like the non-playable sections of the “puppet show”.

Puppeteer is a full-fledged PlayStation 3 title; it offers the visuals, the gameplay and the length that you’d expect from such a game. The game will easily last around 8 hours (if you’re really good), and most likely a lot more than that if you want to collect every secret in the game. Japan Studio has really pushed the boat out here, and although there are aspects of this game that don’t really make sense together, they’ve tried their best to make a cohesive story, and a very enjoyable experience.